We awoke to the chirping of birds and the sweet scent of the olive trees surrounding our pension in Arezzo, amidst the hills of Toscane, one of Italy’s most beautiful and most renowned provinces. We had a long and mountainous journey ahead of us, but the beauty of the Tuscan landscape gave us abundant inspiration to run.

We left Arezzo around ten in the morning and after 30 kilometres we passed through Anghiari, a dreamlike town built on a hill overlooking the rolling green hills and the olive groves below. A mere 7km later we arrived in Sansepolcro, where we had a meeting with high school kids in front of their school. They were quite supportive of the idea of running with a torch for friendship and harmony. “Remember that when you hold this torch you are also making a promise to make this world a little better,” we told them as we passed the torch around. Running with the torch did not seem to be a problem at all; on the contrary, we were quite out of breath after lapping the school premises, but they were very happy to have become real World Harmony Runners and Builders!

Since there were no more meetings planned until the evening, we found ourselves with some free time on our hands. As there happened to be a big lake nearby, we didn’t hesitate but drove straight to it and plunged in immediately. Ah, how refreshing!

From Sansepolcro it was around 70km to the border of San Marino, one of the smallest countries in Europe, walled in by the Italian Appenines and our final destination of the day. We bridged the distance in about three hours, using our ‘leap frog’ technique, which implies having runners on the road at different places simultaneously so we can cover distance faster – an indispensable strategy in the World Harmony Run. Without leap-frogging we could never do so many kilometres per day, and would be very limited in the number of meetings along the way.

We reached the border of San Marino well in time to meet with four runners from the San Marino running club. They kept us company for the eight kilometres steeply uphill to the nation’s capital, also called San Marino.

A word or two about San Marino. This tiny country is actually the oldest democracy in the world! It was founded by a Croatian stonecutter who was later recognized as a saint, hence the name San Marino. So the nation started out as a religious community and later developed into a real democracy. Because the country is so small – 60 kilometres in diameter – and doesn’t possess riches in its soil, it was not of great interest to surrounding monarchies and was able to maintain its independence throughout the centuries – something the San Marinese are very proud of. San Marino has about 24,000 inhabitants (one for every kilometre of the European World Harmony Run!) and consists of the capital San Marino – with some 4,500 inhabitants – and nine smaller communities or ‘castelli’.

The steep ascent to the capital was a journey in itself. We sometimes ran up slopes that rated 18% – an extremity. After about an hour we finally reached the top and met with the Mayor, who happened to be the son of one of the runners accompanying us. It was an exhilarating feeling having climbed more than 700 metres over 8km, but we were given no time to rest! The San Marinese runners were so proud of their city and country that they gave us an impromptu guided tour – ever upwards – to see the stunning panorama of the surrounding Appenines. It was stunning indeed. However, after the tour was over we were mighty glad to find a well deserved shower and food waiting for us!

Abhinabha, The Netherlands

Distance: 115km